


META: Finn, Rey, and the Balance of the Force

by rexluscus



Series: Rex's Star Wars Meta [5]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 11:05:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexluscus/pseuds/rexluscus
Summary: An essay on how Finn and Rey may represent two aspects of the Force.





	META: Finn, Rey, and the Balance of the Force

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before _The Last Jedi_ was released but I think it's still valid.

So, TFA presents Rey and Finn as thematic opposites:

  * They’re both parentless children, but Rey was completely alone, while Finn belonged to a collective that suppressed individuality
  * Rey must learn to let go of the past and where she comes from, while Finn is actively fleeing his and must learn to turn and face it
  * Rey is belligerent while Finn hates violence; Rey longs for adventure and excitement, whereas Finn wants peace and safety
  * Rey’s big temptation is anger, while Finn’s is fear; or rather, Finn fears the power of others, while Rey fears her own



I think what this means is that Rey and Finn will end up struggling with the temptations of each end of the Force spectrum: dark and light. The dark side: selfish power, anger, hatred. The light side: complacency, passivity, loss of the self. They’ll each embody their side’s positive qualities too. The dark side: decisiveness, strength of will, passionate commitment, imagination, change. The light side: compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, wisdom, insight into things as they are. I mean, they won’t  _just_  have these qualities. Rey is clearly compassionate, and Finn is clearly decisive and strong. But at certain moments, they will carry the banners for these light- and dark-side qualities. And their character arcs will require them to embrace qualities belonging to the opposite side.

You can already see this happening in the lightsaber duel with Kylo. Finn and Rey both fight Kylo in defense of each other, but Finn has to discover his willingness to stand his ground and fight, whereas Rey must learn to be still and look within. And Kylo actually gets beaten by  _both_  of them and the qualities they embody: Finn tees him up for Rey at his own expense (i.e. selflessly), and then Rey knocks him down by strength of will. (Just because Finn isn’t standing at the end doesn’t mean he was extraneous. If he hadn’t been there, Rey would have lost.)

This might mark the big difference between the original and sequel trilogies. The OT presented the dark side as bad and the light side as good, more or less. The ST will suggest that you need both. Maybe this will even turn out to be the actual meaning of “bringing balance to the Force”!

After all, Kylo’s problem isn’t just that he’s dark, it’s that the dark and light sides are in conflict within him and he wants one side to win. And I’ll bet it turns out that he fell in part because the people around him tried to drive the dark side  _out_  of him. (We already see that in the way his parents feared and anticipated his darkness, which he may have interpreted as rejection.)

So, Rey and Finn will end up tempering and balancing each other. And maybe together they’ll help poor Kylo balance himself. That’s my prediction.

**Author's Note:**

> This meta was originally posted on Tumblr, but I'm posting it here to make sure it's preserved.


End file.
